Demand in the tour and travel activities space continues to heat up as consumers come to expect online availability backed by realtime inventory.

On the heels of “TripAdvisor Buys Bokun, Rebrands Attractions Sector as Experiences,” (in The Travel Vertical, May 31, 2018), there’s more news in this segment.

Activities provider Peek.com, and its Peek Pro tour and activity operator software which we introduced at eTourism Summit 2014, just announced $23 million in a Series B round of financing and a tie-up with Google that will see its inventory added to Google Search, Google Maps and Google Trips, reports TechCrunch.

How come? Because, says Peek Co-Founder and CEO Ruzwana Bashir, “When you look at businesses in the U.S., over 70 percent don’t have real-time online booking, you still have to call the business or email them.” She also noted the importance of locals, saying that “around one-third of Peek bookings come from people doing things in their own town…”

They touched on the company’s tours and activities offerings, rebranded in April as TripAdvisor Experiences. Kaufer indicated this segment could turn out to be a business worth “up to a couple billion dollars.”

In discussing attractions bookings and restaurant reservations, Kaufer said, “Attractions, whoa, a potentially even bigger category, where there really isn’t any other player…TripAdvisor is a fantastic source of demand for consumers to decide what to do when they visit somewhere.”

In April, TripAdvisor acquired Bokun, an Iceland-based software provider, to bring Experiences further online, providing suppliers with technical solutions in addition to the sector’s largest distribution channel. “The deal empowers TripAdvisor to grow the experiences sector far beyond its current online penetration of 20 percent, simplifies distribution for suppliers, and improves the shopping experience for travelers,” reports Hospitality Tech.